Doing Less Is Doing More: Living Statues as a Medium in Drama Therapy

Abstract

This article presents the living statues method as a prime medium in expressive art therapy and particularly in drama therapy. It describes the method, its specific characteristics and their meaning, and shows how a public performance can be a space for a creative, art-based, therapeutic process. Two vignettes from practice illustrate how the living statues method can be applied to work with teenagers with behavioral problems and the elderly. It also highlights the relationships between this nonverbal, creative, “body–mind–spirit” performance-oriented method and humanistic psychology.